Job Freeze Adds To Staffing Woes At State Hrs

December 18, 1990|By SALLY DENEEN, Staff Writer

A quarter of the nurses needed to care for the needy in Palm Beach County and neighboring counties are not on the job -- and prospects of hiring extra help at public health clinics are dashed by a new hiring freeze.

No new child-abuse investigators, social workers, nurses or other people can be hired at what may be Palm Beach County`s largest state bureaucracy, the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, because of a job freeze that began on Dec. 10.

Of 277 nursing jobs in Palm Beach County and four neighboring counties, 70 are vacant. If anyone quits, the problem gets worse.

``We`re in trouble there,`` Freedlund said of nursing.

A statewide hiring freeze comes amid a state budget crisis.

With Floridians spending less money buying cars, gasoline, liquor and other goods, less tax money pours in. Now, about $271 million must be cut from the state`s $28 billion budget, revenue experts say. Two months ago, $251 million was slashed.

One job in nine is vacant at the five-county state social-service district based in West Palm Beach. About 2,866 people are supposed to work in Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Okeechobee and Indian River counties, Freedlund said.

The top district lawyer job is open. Three of 77 child-abuse investigator jobs are vacant. Only key posts can be filled if officials show dire need, Freedlund said.

King called his nurses a ``good bunch`` who are underpaid by traditional standards. Hiring nurses at six county clinics at A.G. Holley Hospital in Lantana has been a longstanding problem, with or without a job freeze.

Nurses help give flu shots, make sure pregnant women are healthy, help AIDS patients and the poor, Freedlund said. In general, workers at the mammoth bureaucracy do everything from test drinking water to license nursing homes.

Overall, Freedlund said, the job freeze does not hurt much, at least not yet.